The present disclosure is directed to technologies and techniques for automatically controlling a vehicle. More specifically, the present disclosure is directed to positioning a vehicle between other vehicles and in turn distributing vehicle traffic and improving overall traffic performance and safety.
Adaptive cruise control (ACC) (also known as “autonomous cruise control” or “intelligent cruise control”) has become popular over recent years in vehicle technology, and is a cruise control system for road vehicles that automatically adjusts the vehicle speed to maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead. ACC technology is widely regarded as a key component of future generations of intelligent cars. Despite the use of ACC, individual vehicles, as well as vehicles as a collective whole travelling on a road segment, have not been able to effectively deal with congestive driving conditions. Among other effects, traffic “shockwaves” that lead to congestion are often caused by sudden braking of a front vehicle, which in turn causes a cascading and amplifying effect on vehicle braking rearwards, due to poor driver reaction time. What is needed is technologies for mitigating congestive effects by optimizing distances between vehicles.